Q: At the last Quinssa question night you mentioned Leicester’s elastic adherence to the salary cap, would you like to comment again?

ME: He’s your man! [laughs] Can I just say that in the last few months he has only confirmed me in that view! I think it would be invidious of me to say more. [laughs]

DR: It’s looking quite nice outside isn’t it [laughs]

Q: Dean when Mark was trying to get you to join what of what he said has turned out to be true and what was a load of old ‘rubbish’? 

DR: Everything was a load of old ‘rubbish’ and nothing was true [laughs].

ME: You’ve got to do it that way some times [laughs].

DR: To be fair Mark came down to see me down in Carcasonne in February, we sat down and had a good chat and he told me about signing Tana Umaga and … [laughs], no we sat down and had a chat about it and I told him my state at Grenoble which had just changed slightly at that point, we had further conversations and Mark was completely honest about things as was I. I thought the club had huge potential and I was attracted by Mark’s interest in me, when he offered me the job I saw it not only as a compliment but also as a great honour and I was delighted to take the offer up. He took a lot of persuading too, he wanted to keep doing the job [laughs]

ME: Yeah, yeah… [laughs]

Q: We hope to see you stay

DR: I hope you say that again at the end of the year, as long as you say that again in 12 months I’ll be quite happy [laughs]

ME: Take it from me 12 months is a long time [laughs]

DR: I know! But seriously, I said in my programme piece that I used to love playing against Harlequins, and I used to come down here as Director of Rugby and I used to love it.

Q: You always looked so miserable! [laughs] 

DR: I never thought I’d say that I would be looking forward to the start of the season when I’d be wearing a Harlequins shirt and things like that. It was quite strange sitting down there the first day up at Pertemps Bees, and I felt really proud of the way the boys had worked so hard in the pre-season. A lot of guys were really upset about what happened last season and they wanted to make amends this year. Even though we didn’t play as well as we could have done in the first half they set about sorting it out themselves. It’s amazing how your views change. Actually leaving Leicester was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. The year at Grenoble was again a great experience. I see this as a huge experience and I see it as a long term experience from my point of view. I just hope we have the success here that I had up at Leicester, I see no reason why not. I agree with Mark that it won’t happen over night but it’s about building a culture, it’s starting to happen. I was impressed how much of it was here before I came, that was a real eye opener for me. The pleasing thing for me is how many players have stayed on, how many have wanted to stay on and put things right, the camaraderie and friendship amongst the players is very strong and that speaks volumes for the type of players who are here already

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